My garage forms the back wall of my neighbour’s garden. Surprised to see last week they’ve had a contractor in to fix a large trellis to the brick wall of the garage, and place a raised planter against the bottom, filling it with soil and climbing plants.

I’ve only lived here a month (it’s a new build) and they’ve been here nearly a year. I’m not an expert in this sort of thing, but would appreciate some advice! Do I…

a) Live it in in the interest of good neighbourly relations?
b) Nip round and have a polite word, explaining that in future I’d appreciate them asking before drilling holes into my stuff.
c) Ask them to put a waterproof membrane in the raised planter.
d) Ask them to take the whole lot down and repair the damage.

I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be happy if I started fastening things to the side of their house and I’ve got a little feeling in the back of my mind that I’ve been taken advantage of.

Definitely have words

Does it actually effect you? Sure, they should have asked you, but is there any reason to care?

c)

It may be your garage, but it is in their garden.

At very least make sure it’s tanked or you will have problems with damp

I’d go for B). I certainly did that before I put a ladder rack on my neighbours wall.

C is important as you don’t want a huge damp patch inside your garage .
the rest I could live with

There’s the rub, RealMan. Are there any long term implications – climbing plants / mortar damage / damp?

Does it actually effect you? Sure, they should have asked you, but is there any reason to care?

If it ends up causing damp issues or other structural issues with the garage wall then there definitely is a reason to care.

climbing plants / mortar damage / damp?

Depends on the plant, Ivy might sucker, but a rose should be fine. As for Damp, if they have filled up a container that is using the wall as one edge it is possible, depends on if/where the damp proof membranes are. If you think about it, foundations are in soil.

I wouldn’t tell them to take it down, but i would want to know what they have planted and what they are doing to ensure you don’t have any damp issues.

? who legally owns the wall – it isn’t shared is it ????????

also if it’s a new build what do the documents etc say about this sort of stuff

certainly need to see how planter interacts with the dampcourse

c) Ask them to put a waterproof membrane in the raised planter.

This,

If it ends up causing damp issues or other structural issues with the garage wall then there definitely is a reason to care.

Ah ok, then I’d expect them to take measures to prevent stuff like that.

Aha – spoke to him and there is a damp proof membrane. Was too cowardly to discuss the drilling aspect of it but as long as the garage doesn’t get damp I don’t particularly care.

to be honest, the wall is probably as much his as it is yours, if it forms the boundary. I doubt you can do much about him putting stuff on it, as long as it doesn’t affect your internal garage space

knock the garage down for a laugh.

bigrich – Member

knock the garage down for a laugh.

No half measures there, Bigrich! 😀

If he’s rude enough to drill holes in your wall without seeing you first then he could be lying to you. Did you see the membrane or did he tell you there’s a membrane?

Can’t see a membrane but he assured me that there’s one there. He said the builder insisted one went in. 🙂

It’s above the DPC?

It’s a garage. Don’t think it’s got a DPC.

You’re more trusting them me, now that he’s done what he’s done without speaking to you first I’d want to see at least the builder’s work spec and/or the invoice describing work and materials used.

Don’t allow him to risk you having to fork out for repair work further down the line (and he’ll have moved!)

Poison their pets.

….then mount the heads of said animals on the newly erected trellis climber, they’ll get the message.

Bet my bottom dollar this climber will be inside your garage or at least in the roof structure in a couple years – youll love it then …..salt the earth 🙂

Drill a 15mm hole below the plantar surface level, get some plumbing supplies and a funnel, and voila, you’ve got a drainage tank for old engine/bike oil…..

DrP

flaperon – you dont live in worcestershire do you 😉

My brother & sister-in-law have just done something similar, but they did manage to put a DPM in the back of the raised bed to protect their neighbour’s wall.

Most climbers dont damage mortar – Ivy is the most notable exception.

Is this the same as a neighbour painting his side of your fence white, then you painting your side brown a week latter and him having a rant because the brown paint has runs over his nice new white paint job.

😉

I would keep it friendly, but go round and see what he has done in person.

DrP has a great idea.

Following DrP’s lead I would fit a urinal in the garage draining into the flower bed.

Set up a TV in there along with all your bike fixing tat, beer fridge, Scalextric and porn stash and you would have the perfect man cave with an en-suite.

This may well fall under the purview of the party wall act. Search my started post history to see where that can lead!

As it’s the wall for your garage it would be your wall not his.

Was I being too cautious then when I put in a kayak rack between the wall of my house and the neighbours garage? Would probably have been easier to drill holes in both walls to put in the crossbeams, but instead I used uprights against their garage wall and only drilled mine for an attachment point for the other end of the beams (so no holes in their wall, just wooden posts butted up against it).

Would most people have just drilled their neighbours garage wall to do this? It’s not like they’d ever know either, as they live at the end of a completely different road to the one we live at the end of – just their garage forms the sidewall of the passage to our back garden (and we share a garden fence).

Actually I think if out front doors were next to each other I probably would have asked, but given I wouldn’t even recognise the adults in the street (though I know the kids – the boy sometimes pops over the fence) it was a lot more awkward.

Following DrP’s lead I would fit a urinal in the garage draining into the flower bed.

Why go to all that effort to provide them with free fertilizer?

I would be royally pissed off, and wouldn’t dream of doing it to my neighbour’s garage wall.

I mean, how hard is it to at least make a back to the planter to keep the earth off the wall?

Worked for a lady a few years ago who had the same, ivy was planted on the side of her garage wall, it got under the facia, and started going under the felt, within a few months lots of leaks etc.

Awatering can of salt and water soon stopped the ivy,but it had destroyed the garage roof.

We’re just about to do this. We’re putting some plastic planters in though so no worry about damp getting in at the base.

Personally though, I see no reason to ask permission from the neighbours for putting the trellis up. I don’t ask permission when I put some shelves up on the semi-seperating wall, what’s the difference? The wall is the edge of my garden, it’s effectively my wall.

A little knock on the door out of respect would have been nice.

Now the gauntlet has been thrown down id be nipping over and regularly watering the plants with weed killer. Just seeing the bemusement on their faces at the no growth would be worth it alone.

I hate inconsiderate neighbours.

Drill holes from inside the garage looking into their garden. Watch the sunbathe naked and seed the earth. 😈

I don’t ask permission when I put some shelves up on the semi-seperating wall

I don’t think this is relevant. The wall here forms no physical part of the neighbour’s property. In my opinion, they shouldn’t be screwing stuff into a wall that doesn’t belong to them, although as others have suggested, a polite query would probably have got them permission to do so.

put in a damp proof membrane. My friend had this and within a few rainfalls water was coming in through the brickwork

The wall is the edge of my garden, it’s effectively my wall.

I think you’ll find in this case that the wall is entirely their side of the boundary.